Towards mid-January 1910 there was a beautiful celebration for the Holy Family in the institute of the same name in Fratta Polesine and Don Guanella sat down at table with a dozen priests and other lay people chatting amiably.

Sister Rosalia Pisoni had prepared a beautiful lunch which began with a hearty appetizer, then came some excellent ravioli, a nice plate of braised beef and a side dish of roast potatoes with salad.

When Sister Rosalia arrived with a large tray of roast chicken, Don Guanella didn't even let it be placed on the table and said:

"You'll take this right away to our patients in the infirmary!"

A ward was called the infirmary where about fifteen patients had lived together for years, unable to leave their beds.

The nun remained a little undecided, also because the guests, believing that Don Guanella was joking, hinted that they were of a completely different opinion and tried to avert that inopportune hijacking.

Don Guanella, however, was not joking, on the contrary he said:

- Since you hesitated in obedience, as a penance you will say a Miserere before evening.

The nun left with her load and shortly after reappeared with a nice cake and Don Guanella immediately ordered:

- You will also take this one to keep the chicken company and you will recite a second Miserere.

The same thing happened for the fruit and the Misereres went up to three.

In the end Suor Rosalia reappeared hesitantly with the coffee, but this time the offer was accepted, indeed, it was corrected with a drop of grappa and accompanied with a glass of old wine.

Sister Rosalia understood, together with the guests, that a good lunch is not a feast and that there must also be measure in abundance. She willingly she then she recited the three Miserere.

{podcast id=9}

In 1906 Don Bonacina was in Fratta Polesine and Don Guanella also happened to be there, who continually went around his houses which he assisted and supervised without ceasing.

Around three o'clock in the afternoon, while the two were taking a little rest, a voice shouted:

"Fire, fire..."

There was a great rush of volunteers including Don Guanella who, despite his years, took the lead in organizing the extinguishing work. He ordered that as much water as possible be brought onto the roof, since he had caught fire in an old chimney that hadn't been cleaned properly due to carelessness. As the soot burned along the chimney, a few buckets of water were enough to put out the fire. They were all ready to resume the operation, in case some other outbreak still turned on, when they saw one of the unfortunate guests of the House of Don Guanella arrive, tired, puffing and mumbling. amiably "good sons".

The poor fellow, who was called Eggcracker, due to the fact that he also had soft feet, and wanting to help put out the fire too, trudged up the stairs carrying two large filled buckets. By now he had climbed the almost eighty steps with that tremendous weight and was approaching the skylight.

Don Guanella welcomed him with a caress and much praise, then, looking at the buckets, he began to laugh in amusement: Schiaccianova hadn't brought water, but wine to put out the fire. In fact, a nun had prepared two buckets full of wine that would be used for dinner and had left them in the cellar to pick them up later; the poor fellow, full of zeal, had seen them and, thinking of collaborating in the operation, had taken them to the roof.

Everyone smiled and complimented. Don Guanella then said to one of the improvised firefighters:

"Go down to the kitchen and get the glasses our friend has brought us to drink!"

Since everyone was hot and sweaty, it was just what was needed: the glasses arrived and Don Guanella offered everyone a drink, complimenting everyone and especially Tonino Schiacciauova who was smiling very satisfied with having contributed to saving that House of Providence from the flames.

Giovan Battista Peruzzo, who was later Archbishop of Agrigento, used to recount that, when he was a simple Passionist friar, he was commissioned to raise funds for the construction of a convent in Caravate, in the province of Varese. However, he had been ordered not to make collections where there were benefactors from other convents, because his superiors not only did not want to hear about subsidies, but were also very wary of their respective gardens where they absolutely did not want anyone to go and collect for them .

Father Peruzzo didn't know where to start and went to an old friend of his who had built the Corpus Domini church in Milan, begging him to show him some people willing to help a charitable work.

The friend looked at him as if he had asked him for the moon and said, placing the thumb of his open hand on the tip of his nose:

- Butt the blackbird! If you go to reap where I sow, we make a beautiful couple! Those then start to help you and leave me with a pinch of nose!

Father Peruzzo, desolate and mortified, had nothing to answer; leafing through the bulletin La Divina Provvidenza that Don Guanella printed, it occurred to him to go and find this priest of whom he had learned how quickly he had founded so many houses of hospitality.

He went to see him and was received with great cordiality. Don Guanella listened to all his reasons, his difficulties, then he took him to the chapel to pay a visit to the Blessed Sacrament. He then kept it to eat and sleep discussing various aspects of the enterprise. Finally, when he learned that he didn't even have a penny to help with the work, he said:

— But, Father Peruzzo, this is the best way to start a work: in this way we trust only in Providence and convince ourselves that it is God who does for us and not we who do for him!

Don Guanella, before dismissing Father Peruzzo, made him a list of generous people to whom he could turn and the next day accompanied him on a visit to those who could most help and advise him.

With this first round things began to go well and Father Peruzzo, full of gratitude, remembering that: Chiappa il merlo! he asked Don Luigi if his request hadn't damaged him.

'But I'm not the one doing her a favor; it is she who does me a favor! You couldn't have made me a better proposal, because whoever believes that Providence helps up to a certain limit, doesn't believe in Providence! For every benefactor I let you find, Providence will send me a hundred; or however many I will need... Centuplum accipietis! The Lord said it and there is nothing but to believe Him!

Father Agostino Gemelli became a friar in his mature age, when he was already a famous doctor and psychologist.

After his conversion to Catholicism and the discovery of his religious vocation, Agostino Gemelli's life of faith was often troubled by restlessness and doubt; his generosity and his impetus as a convert often led him to the rocks of dissatisfaction and mystery.

The pontiff received him, listened to him, understood his problems as a learned and profound man who had studied and documented himself on theology by reading many works by theologians; he also answered certain questions from him and then said to him:

- Go introduce yourself in my name to that Como priest named Luigi Guanella, repeat to him what you told me, confide in him your anxieties, your doubts, your uncertainties and then do what he tells you to do as if I had told you myself.

Gemini was dumbfounded, then had the courage to object:

- Your Holiness, I know very well the good that Don Guanella has been doing for years for so many poor people... I know what is said about him, his incessant charitable activity, his goodness... But I don't think he can be aware of the more recent theological studies, nor that he has had the time to deepen certain problems that a lifetime is not enough to solve... I really don't think, Your Holiness, that he is up to solving these doubts of mine that need much more than of his good will which is fine for the simple people he has been assisting for years.

The Pope looked at him very kindly, then, smiling, he said:

— But my son, aren't your heads already swollen enough with these blessed theologians, and these books and these studies? You already know enough about theology and with other theology you won't move a step. Believe me: you don't need theologians, you need the word of a saint. Don Guanella is just the man you need!

Gemelli, though stunned at first, was convinced and did what the Pope had instructed him to do.

The meeting between the two took place in Milan and what theology had not been able to do, Don Guanella's charity managed to do it, which enlightened the mind and the troubled spirit of Gemini, gave him back peace and turned on the light of a friendship that lasted until Guanella's death.

Shortly after this meeting, the Friars Minor welcomed Agostino Gemelli among themselves.

{podcast id=11}

An old priest, who for many years had been archpriest of Villanova del Ghebbo in the province of Rovigo, left his parish and wanted to end his days among the Servants of Charity, pronouncing his vows.

Don Guanella gladly welcomed her and so Monsignor Giovan Battista Baròn made his profession, later deciding in writing to leave his assets, around five hundred lire at the time, to the Don Guanella Opera.

When the matter reached the ears of the nephews who were waiting for that inheritance to glory, they accused Don Guanella in court of circumventing an incapable person to their own advantage; even if Monsignor Baròn had indeed been a little ill, but clear of mind.

We came to the hearing in the court of Rovigo and Don Luigi went there, finding time between his continuous efforts. He sat down to listen to the indictment, the examination of the witnesses and all the formalities that interested him little, to the point that, given his tiredness, he fell asleep and slept soundly, as if that trial it didn't concern him.

So things went on until the time came for Lino Merlin, the defense attorney, to speak, who noticed that the defendant was asleep. The lawyer, however, began the defense and came to the conclusion, said:

“Mr. President, gentlemen of the court, and all who attend this trial, please look at our defendant. Look at him with admiration and respect, because this is either the most brazen of swindlers or the quietest of the accused. He is here to prove his innocence and he demonstrates it without ambiguity, by sleeping an authentic and deep sleep, which began, as you have seen, almost with the beginning of the trial. How can you sleep so peacefully without having a clear conscience? Could a cheater do it that he knew he had done wrong and risk a penalty? This is the sleep of a man who for fifty years has spent his life giving relief to the suffering of the most miserable and abandoned creatures: his institutes, his work, his life bear witness to this.

Unaware of the panegyric, Don Guanella slept soundly; when the argument was drawing to a close, the lawyer, wiping the sweat, resumed:

“On my behalf, Mr. President, gentlemen of the court and friends present, on my behalf, here we are faced with the most beautiful proof of innocence that stands above all others: this is the typical, authentic, unequivocal sleep of the just and I therefore ask , for a just man, absolution with full formula!

A thunderous applause crowned the speech and made Don Guanella wake up with a jolt, who was acquitted with an unusual proof that came from Providence while he was sleeping, indeed precisely because he was sleeping, without bothering to catch fish.

Don Filippo Bonacina had recently entered the S. Giuseppe agricultural colony in via della Balduina in Rome. About thirty boys had been entrusted to him, all orphans and abandoned who, due to their liveliness and other characteristics, were never lost sight of for a moment. It was enough to leave them alone as they flew punches and kicks and were scuffles.

When Don Guanella happened to be in Rome, despite being sixty years old, he devoted himself to being an assistant and had his own particular method which allowed him to always manage in some way.

One day, during Lent, he approached Don Filippo and said to him:

- Are you coming with me to the chapel to do the Via Crucis?

Don Filippo replied:

- I would gladly come, but if I leave these little devils alone they will demolish the building...

Don Luigi replied:

- Donkey, they all have their Guardian Angel watching them and who is certainly much better than you!

It was not possible to answer anything and Don Filippo went to the chapel to make the Via Crucis. They hadn't reached the third or fourth station when an infernal racket began to arrive from the courtyard: noises and screams announcing that the worst was soon to come.

Don Filippo, who was on his knees, got up saying:

- It shows how the Guardian Angels are doing assistance!

With these words the priest leapt into the courtyard and, with the persuasive force of his twenty-five years, in the twinkling of an eye, set things right again. Back in the chapel, the Via Crucis could be completed and Don Guanella pointed out to Don Filippo that his ideas on the Guardian Angels were not very orthodox.

- Even less is their way of providing assistance, replied Don Bonacina.

Then Don Luigi smiling answered him:

- Do you know, little donkey, why what happened happened? Because you hammer, you have too little faith in your Guardian Angel... That's why you had to do it alone.

In the asylum of Livraga, located in the diocese of Lodi and run by the Guanellian nuns, in the late afternoon of a rigid winter day in 1909, Don Luigi happened and, taking a look around, he realized that life was he carried out in a regime of great austerity that often bordered on stinginess. Everything derived from the particular views of the superior, who thought that saving on every little thing was the sign of true poverty.

All this was not shared by the good nuns who patiently and kindly supported the work of the superior who was, moreover, a good and truly virtuous woman. Don Guanella began to talk to the nuns and a few words were enough for him to confirm his suspicions.

A little later the superior arrived who, good-naturedly, was called Mother Tiene, because of her obsession with keeping and preserving. She had done some shopping and, after pleasantries, she set about preparing the fire for a blaze in the grate. To do this she took a stick of wood from a chest and began to light some sheets of paper. Don Guanella looked at her and said:

- Mind you, mind that... a single piece of wood doesn't make a fire!...

The nun understood the hint and with great pain took another piece of wood from the chest and continued the thankless work.

Don Guanella continued to look at her smiling, then he said:

- Two make too little, but it's already getting better!

The nun, hiding a sigh, went back to the chest and took out another piece of wood, the smallest she could find, and placed it on top of the other two with great difficulty.

A few more moments passed and Don Guanella, while the nuns could not believe their ears, said smiling:

- Three fans only one fire...

So Mother Tiene, who was indeed a bit tight, but, deep down, was good and docile to teachings, took an armful of wood from the chest that she had kept for a long time like holy things and heroically threw it on the flame that was struggling to burn . Then brother fire came alive and singing. It was needed because the day was cold, the nuns tired of work wanted some refreshment: so everyone sat happily around the flame.

Don Guanella chuckled happy at that refreshment and admonished:

- Finally: at the end of a day it is necessary to give even those who have worked the right refreshment and the necessary nourishment: it is not the case to deprive oneself of what is necessary for life. There are other mortifications to be imposed, such as those of pride, of laziness, not of what it takes to live.

{podcast id=10}